A 16-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by four to five unidentified men and dumped at a parking lot in Connaught Place in the heart of the national capital, police said on Wednesday.

Even as there have been discrepancies in the girl’s statement about the place of occurrence of
the alleged crime, a case under section 376G (gang-rape) and protection of children from sexual offences (POCSO) act has been registered at the Barakhamba Road police station against unknown persons.

A senior police officer said the girl refused to undergo a medical examination.

On Sunday night the girl walked into the Connaught Place police station in a tattered condition and told the police she had been raped by four to five persons. A local NGO that assists police in crime against women cases was called to counsel the girl.

“During counseling, the girl told the NGO members that she had arrived in the city on a Delhi-Gorakhpur train after having a fight with her father and step-mother,” a police officer said on the condition of anonymity.

“She told them she arrived at New Delhi railway station in the morning and walked to Bangla Sahab Gurudwara. After eating food at the gurudwara, she roamed around in Connaught Place area till evening,” he added.

According to the girl’s complaint, at around 7.30 pm, the five men met her somewhere in the outer circle of Connaught Place. One of them identified himself as Deepak, a driver by profession, and promised her to get her a job and a place to stay in.

“They took her to an isolated place in a lane behind Scindia House and took turns to rape her. They threatened her with dire consequences if she told anybody about the crime before fleeing from the crime spot,” the officer said, quoting the girl’s statement.

The girl was produced before a child welfare committee where her statement was recorded. She initially claimed that she had been gang-raped at the New Delhi Railway station by four men. Later, she alleged four to five men took turns to rape her in the lane behind the Scindia House.

“She has not been able to identify the place where the crime took place. She is disoriented and incoherent. It would be wrong to say she is mentally unstable. During a check-up, the doctors did not find any external injury mark on her body,” the officer said.

A police team has been sent to her native place to inform her parents and bring them to Delhi for further action in the case.

The incident has come to light a few days before December 16, when a paramedical student was gang-raped on a moving bus last year, sparking nationwide protests. She had died at a Singapore hospital, after battling for her life for 13 days.

The incident had spurred the government to bring in a tough anti-rape law.

Since then dozens of rapes and crimes against women have earned the national capital ignominy around the world.